UT Chief Says It's Miraculous Pilot Survived Plane Crash

Dec. 1, 2022
Mountain Green Fire District Fire Chief Brian Brendel can't believe the pilot wasn't hurt, and walked for hours for help.

Mountain Green Fire District Fire Chief Brian Brendel still can't get over the call his department got this past weekend for a plane crash.

It was in a very rural inaccessible area that crews often have difficulty finding downed planes.

“Many a plane crashed up there in 20 or 30 years. No one’s ever walked out,” Brendel told KSL reporters. 

That's until now.

Surviving the crash alone was miraculous. But that was just the beginning. 

“He then walked about 5 or 6 miles, as far as we can tell to get to cellphone coverage so that he could call his son, and then his son called 911,” Brendel explained. 

The small one-seater plane crashed in a mountainous area about eight miles from Morgan County Airport.

“The fact that he was uninjured because that canopy was so exposed is amazing,” Brendel told reporters. 

The crash happened around 2 p.m., with the call coming in for a plane down around 4 p.m., meaning the pilot hiked for around two hours before he could get to help.

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